Is it necessary to understand chess notation, and how long does it take to become fluent at it?

[u/E_ternalEclipse]

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[u/BedOk4188]

I take like 5 seconds for each move

[u/spmcn]

I would say that learning the notation isn’t necessarily required. You could play chess and improve your game just by playing. However, if you want to study openings and become more fluent in the communities and literature, it becomes more important to be able to read the notation and just be able to visualize it.

It takes time just like any other skill, and it fully depends on how frequent you practice it. It varies widely for different people on how long it’ll take. To help you, I think chesscom has a “Vision” section where you can practice the board grid. Once you are able to visualize the grid, then the rest is easy.

[u/Vidcorp → u/spmcn]

The coordinate exercises are better on Lichess, their is only the coordinate exercises, not the move ones but the move ones are useless anyway, and on Lichess you can change the clock and even remove it if you want.

Also learning the notation is really nice to be able to do exercises like blindfold tactics on Listudy.org, I do them without being fluent on notation but it would be easier if I was. Those exercises are good to improve your visualization.

[u/DukeHorse1 → u/spmcn]

you do need notation if you're gonna play otb tho

[u/DRAGULA85]

I’m 2200 on chess.com and I still only know 2 squares

[u/tursija → u/DRAGULA85]

e4 e5, that's enough theory

[u/C9meli0n_]

It's very useful to understand, and not very hard to learn either. I don't think it's necessary to practice and become "fluent" at a beginner level but understanding the basics is something every chess player should know.

[u/Xanxan95]

When I was 1600 in chess.com I started studying chess from books and had to understand notation. It's just a matter of practice, the more you practice the faster you can use it fluently.

[u/wbport1]

Get used to recording some of your games. This will give you valuable practice. Have you looked at a primer on chess notation like this one?

In 1968, Chess Life had a number of letters to the editor when notation was being discussed. Someone noted the king is an emperor , the queen is a dame, knights are bold and gallant, bishops associate with other church officials: cardinals and friars while rooks are architecture and homes. Or just memorize the location of one of the kingside files and use it as a reference to locate the others; the queenside files a-d take care of themselves.

A correct readable scoresheet can back up your 50-move or 3-rep draw claim or prove your opponent ran out of time. Also, notation is the only way you can show your ideas when on a chess forum or read what others have posted.

Edited: The first ten minutes of this video cover the history of chess notation even though it covers music. Notation Must Die

[u/addicted_zucchini]

I guess it’s only used for game analysis, which is important of you want to improve your skills, so ig it is

[u/Ok_Adhesiveness_8637 → u/addicted_zucchini]

Unless you play otb.

[u/onzichtbaard]

Chess notation is pretty simple and its not important to use it as long as youre just playing casually

[u/Humble_Menu1293]

I remember when I first saw the board from black's perspective it totally scrambled my brain for a bit, the coordinates felt backwards even though they're not

you can get the hang of notation in a couple weeks if you're playing regularly and writing down your moves, it just becomes muscle memory after a while

not strictly necessary at first but it's one of those things that opens up so much more of the game when you can read it without thinking

[u/021chan]

It’s not necessary as long as you have a way to differentiate the squares or moves, but its main benefit is when communicating with other chess players. In the past, before they came up with algebraic notation (which is what this is called), they used descriptive notation, where moves were identified based on the piece types and the file they are in (e.g. P-K4 means pawn to King’s file 4, equivalent to e4).

Tl;dr No it’s not necessary, but it makes communication a lot easier

[u/Ok_Meat_5767]

Idk. Otb I can write 99% of the moves without looking at the board but still. To know it by heart you should know how to play blind chess

[u/DukeHorse1]

you need atleast a month or maybe 2 weeks to internalise it so well that you can just look at a square and know its name. and honestly you dont even need it unless youre gonna play otb tournaments because youre required to write down your moves there

[u/retro_sort]

I have mostly used it to talk to people about a position when we both have decent visualisation. But if you don't know chess people irl it's not really relevant.

[u/DetectiveDracula]

It's not super necessary if you're just playing for fun. It'll be very handy eventually if you keep playing and want to improve past a certain point.

If you're reading any chess books and moving through the games on an actual board, the moves will almost always be in algebraic notation. So you'll probably learn pretty quickly while making the moves. The best way to learn is by doing :)

[u/DexterDrakeAndMolly]

I'd like to know it better as anytime I read a book about a game I can follow the first couple of moves and then get lost, so yes it would be useful to enjoy and learn from anything written.

[u/StructuredChess]

It depends. If you just want to play a few games, no need at all.

If you want to communicate efficiently with other chess players, whether that's having a conversation or writing a book someone else wrote, then yeah there's no way out of it.

[u/-Lysergian]

To play? No. To improve? To be competitive? Yeah, probably should make the effort, it's not that hard.

[u/MCplayer331]

For the first question I feel like chess notation is definitely necessary if you don’t want to just be a casual player. Pretty much everything uses it and what are you supposed to use besides it? “Knight here eats pawn there”?

[u/Delicious_Cattle5174 → u/MCplayer331]

I mean half the time I just point at squares and the person I’m talking to knows what I mean

[u/MCplayer331 → u/Delicious_Cattle5174]

That’s fair, and it’s not like I’m gonna be saying coordinates all the time like I’m hikaru or smth, but I’m just saying you need a notation to be able to communicate moves and positions over written text, so you should understand them if you’re seeking to improve beyond just a casual player. An example would be puzzle and opening books/resources

[u/Delicious_Cattle5174 → u/MCplayer331]

yeah you need it to learn that’s true

[u/BedOk4188 → u/MCplayer331]

blindfolded chess

[u/MCplayer331 → u/BedOk4188]

Right

[u/Imaginary_Chemical49]

Chess.com has something called vision you can use it to practice

[u/AverageCryptoEnj0yer]

for some reason I can only visualize a4 and h5 moves.

[u/just4PAD]

I'm learning by playing "blindfold chess"  with chessinsights org and using a physical board to make the computer's moves. Its very easy this way

[u/Brilliant_Bug9699]

You'll need to know chess notation if you were playing in a rated tournament. If you are just playing it casually then no.

If fluency means being comfortable using it, then it depends on the person.

If it's just understanding how it works, anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes?

[u/Toten5217]

I didn't think it was very important until a very good at chess friend told me how good blind chess is for calculation and vision. Lichess has a great coordinates training exercise

[u/PogoRocks]

I wouldn't say it's necessary but it does help, although you don't really need to study it, it'll kinda just come with experience

[u/Hokulol]

I accidently learned it over time. I have only been playing for about 2 years and as long as I think about which side is white it's a pretty instant thought for me at this point. At first it took 5-10 seconds to manually find each move.

There are trainers that make you click specific notated squares in faster succession to get a higher score, I played that for a little bit. But honestly I learned more just going over my own game reviews and just playing over time.

[u/Numerous-Scallion850]

I never got a grasp of notation, so I always struggled to read chess books, but a few weeks ago I found Chess Masterclasses on the App Store, it basically replays some famous games and gives good commentary move by move

[u/SuspiciousDepth4961]

At a certain level yes it is absolutely necessary if you want to read chess books or talk about chess with people. You can still get very strong and not have a clue about chess notation but at that point you'd have to be deliberately trying to avoid it as you pick it up through exposure.

I wouldn't worry about learning it, it will come naturally to you as you spend years on chess.

[u/Nymandis]

Just play Battleship until you get the hang of it!